Compost Toilets
The main building was designed around three large compost toilets & collection chambers. These toilets designed by us and built by local craftsmen, are unique in Montenegro. The idea is simple: underneath each toilet seat is a compost heap! They are not smelly or complicated – the only difference is you don’t flush. An average person uses 200 litres of water every day – 70 litres of that is polluted with human waste and immediately unusable. Compost toilets are ‘dry’ – saving around 6 litres each time they are used and providing us fantastic humus to feed our grounds and gardens.
Waterless Urinals
We have installed Airflush® urinals to save more water. They look like a standard urinal but instead of being flushed by water, a solar powered fan constantly draws air down through the urinal into a venting system. This ensures that stale odours do not back into the building and that the urine has a good supply of air. The urine passes through a U trap and flows into the compost toilet system on it's way to a collection tank. On it's journey it first breaks down into Amonium, then into nitrites and finally into nitrates. The resultant liquid (AKA Compost Tea) is then diluted and used as a liquid fertiliser.
Greywater Recycling System
As we are not polluting water with human waste, we have no ‘blackwater’ to dispose of. That just leaves the ‘greywater’ water from our sinks/showers. This passes through a grease trap to remove grease and any big solids. Then it flows into a series of re-purposed baths planted with reeds and other plants whose roots begin to absorb the water. Any water at the end of the system is clean enough to irrigate our organic vegetable gardens.